Sat Sri Akaal Ji.

Here, i pour myself once again for you.

snavneet:
Archived_member2 ji, we all have been on this journey since time immemorial. We are all journeying 'through' God, so how can the journey ever begin? And for that matter how can it ever end, if God is infinite? There is no single point in anyone's life which can be marked as the starting moment of the journey towards God because that moment would have been inspired by a moment which took place before it. Just like time always flows in one direction, which is forwards, similarly each one of us is always moving towards God at our own pace, learning our lessons on the way. We may lose our path and go astray, but the sorrow that eventually comes out of it, brings us back on track. Let me explain with a simple example. Suppose that one fine day, after experiencing all sorts of material pleasures, a very rich man realizes that fame and fortune cannot bring him true everlasting happiness. Out of his experience, he understands that everything is perishable, that nothing in this physical world lasts forever. Out of Vairaag he then decides to seek salvation in God. Someone might say that this is the point where his journey towards God begins. But, what if he hadn't earned himself all that fame and fortune and gone through the associated pleasures, would this 'moment of realization' have even come to him? How then can we be certain where his journey began? What i mean to say is that, even his becoming rich and then experiencing great boredom out of temporal pleasures was part of the divine plan, meant to inspire him, meant to give him that extra push that would accelerate him on his ongoing journey towards God-realization. If the push is great enough then one can escape the gravitic pull of Maya, otherwise one re-enters the cycle of life and death. But some day, that greatest of pushes will come, which will take one naturally and permanently away from Maya's slavery and towards true awakening.

Also, let me assure you that God-realization is not the end of the journey. God always remains unfathomable. If that wasn't the case then the enlightened ones wouldn't have called God an infinite ocean of consciousness and bliss. The journey in God never ends even after realization. We will always be journeying in God. But right now, we are un-enlightened. We are sleep-walking through Him. A major part of our consciousness is asleep, it is unconscious. While most of us continue to suffer in cycles of life and death, there are a few who put everything at stake and decide to realize God permanently, once-and-forever! Ultimately, we all will come to that realization, but the sooner the better because the world of infinite ecstasy awaits us post enlightenment. Many-a-times we refer to the enlightened ones as the awakened ones. They are called the awakened ones because they have become entirely conscious of their existence in God. No part of their being is unconscious. They are 100% awake and aware of God, in and around them. They start experiencing the infinite ocean of bliss with complete awareness. Remember one thing for sure, God-realization is not the end! It is the point where we come out of repetition, out of all cycles and enter into a realm where love, joy, peace and bliss are ever new and eternal. Simply put, we are all on a pilgrimage towards God-realization via God but the journey never began and will never end because God Himself has no beginning and no end!

Now, let us come to the second part of your question. I ask you, how can Naam-Jap be the beginning of your journey? Didn't someone inspire you to do Naam-Jap? Why not call that the beginning? Now, i can keep going backwards in your present life and then probably in your past lives and never reach the point where your journey began. Now, this moment when someone inspired you to do Naam-Jap depends on all the moments that came before it, even on your birth! What if you were born into a Buddhist family? You could be practicing Vipaasna instead of Naam-Jap or none at all. Maybe, even in a previous life, somebody inspired you to do Naam-Jap, but you got bored and abandoned it. So, would that moment from your previous life, when somebody inspired you to do Naam-Jap and you started doing it but abandoned it later, constitute the beginning of the journey? Think deeply about this and you will find out that you cannot single out any moment, day, year, life, etc. where your journey towards God-realization began.

And, what to speak of one-pointedness. By now you would have realized its importance yourself! We all have been in this cycle of birth and death, since God knows when! Why? What went wrong? Why didn't we realize God in the first birth itself? And i am sure, we would have crossed paths with many enlightened beings in at least some of those lives. Why did we not get enlightened then? Could it have been due to our lack of devotion? Our lack of one-pointedness? Maybe the enlightened ones tried their best, but we were so manmukh by nature that we never totally devoted ourselves to their teachings, never followed them in totality, with one-pointedness! It could have happened that way, right? Even in Sikh history, you will come across many such manmukhs, who failed to obey the Gurus, even though they lived with them and listened to their Baani in person. Take, Guru Ramdaas Ji's eldest son Prithi Chand as an example. He lived with Guruji, served Him, served the Langar, listened to His sermons, did Naam-Jap, etc. but still he betrayed his father Guru Ramdaas Ji and his younger brother Guru Arjan Dev Ji. He clearly went against Guruji's instructions so many times. And Prithi Chand coveted the Gurgaddi for himself and made every possible attempt to take it away from Guru Arjan Dev Ji, who was the most deserving successor to Guru Ramdaas Ji. Even in the presence of His holiness Guru Ramdaas Ji, Prithi Chand failed to become a Gurmukh. Till the very last moment, he denied hiding the letters sent by Guru Arjan Dev Ji to Guru Ramdaas Ji, which Guruji had to finally locate using His universal clairvoyance! So, inspite of doing Naam-Jap, inspite of doing Keertan, inspite of listening to Sermons, inspite of doing Sewa, what did Prithi Chand lack? I am sure it is not too hard to figure out now. Prithi Chand's devotion to the Guru was incomplete, it was not "one-pointed". In a way, it was "two-pointed" or "many-pointed" because the part of Him that betrayed Guruji was the part of his ego, of his fragmented mind. His mind was split up into so many pieces, it was 'envying his younger brother', 'coveting the Gurgaddi', 'denying the Hukam of Guruji so many times' and what not! He lacked one-pointedness in his devotion to Guruji. And for the same reason, he lacked one-pointedness in doing 'Naam-Jap', 'Keertan' and 'Sewa'. Because even while doing Naam-Jap, he would be thinking of his next step to get closer to the Gurgaddi. That's why Guruji says in his Baani, "Saavdhaan Ekaagar Cheet", because He expects at least that much from us. He wants us to praise God but warns us to do it with a one-pointed mind, with complete devotion, otherwise we would not make any progress. If that was not the case then He would have changed the mind of Prithi Chand using His divine powers, but then that wouldn't be Self-realization, would it? And whatever is not Self-realized, is lost easily in a moment of faithlessness. I hope you got the point this time. Simply put, Sumiran without one-pointedness is of no use at all. If you can be one-pointed even for a few moments during your Sumiran, then your Sumiran will be fruitful and its fruit would make you even more one-pointed! It is like a chain reaction!

As a challenge, try Reading something while doing Sumiran orally. Go ahead, read the above paragraph and also recite "Waheguru" loudly, both at the same time! See, if you can do either of them in any fruitful way. I am absolutely sure that you will do justice to neither of these activities. You can be fair to either of them, only if you become one-pointed and commit to one act at a time. Please try this. You will know what i have been trying to explain for so long! And, via this challenge, your mind is becoming only "two-pointed", reading one thing and reciting another, imagine the usual situations in everyday life, where the mind runs away in countless directions, especially when one sits to do Sumiran!

Let me know if you are convinced about something!

Bhull Chukk Dee Khima Mangdaa Haan.

__________________
(Japo!)
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa,
Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh.